The U.S. Public Education Systems' Failure to Accurately Educate Students on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflcit

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is arguably the world’s most controversial conflict in modern history. The United States plays a central role in its mediation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the mid-twentieth century, making the ways in which the conflict is taught in American public schools especially relevant to the future of the conflict and more specifically, the role of the United States in the future of this conflict (Arieli, 2016). The United States has put forth numerous peace solutions that have all failed. In understanding why these peace solutions have failed to bring about peaceful change in the region, the U.S. public education system must be investigated to understand how U.S. policymakers have been educated on the conflict itself. An accurate curriculum is a vital precursor to any effort to dissect the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially in an attempt to develop a peace plan. This paper takes the position that the public education system in the United States of America contains a biased curriculum concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, therefore requiring investigation and reform. Additionally, this paper argues that the United States has failed to provide middle and high school students with an accurate history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.